Developer Diaries

Close Combat: First to Fight - Vol #3

Another change is what the Marines call "move by fire." It means that, when an enemy position is known, one Marine will suppress that location with fire while the next Marine moves, and then they switch. In First to Fight, the A.I. Marines often need to do this by themselves, plus we also needed to create a way for players to cause suppression fire quickly in the direction they want their team to go. These required both A.I. and interface changes.

Other changes requested by the Marines ranged from voice script changes, like shouting "grenade," only when an enemy has tossed a grenade, and shouting "frag out" only when a Marine has tossed a grenade. Also, our enemy A.I. needed to create better placement dispersion. Marines needed to "make a smaller target of themselves" when they ran. Marines in real life are able to pull the pin and toss the grenade faster than they were in the game. A detonated grenade needs to cause disorientation even in the enemies who aren't injured by the explosion, and much more. In other words, having active-duty, combat-experienced Marines intimately involved in the development caused changes in virtually every aspect of First to Fight.

During the next developer diary, we'll discuss why and how Destineer created its own 3D engine to make First to Fight.